Past Event
Moving Image Arts present · A Mark Pellington Film
This Is Buzz
Screening + Live Panel
A screening of THIS IS BUZZ ahead of its release, preceded by excerpts from the original 1990 series and followed by a live panel on the media language it set loose.
Saturday, September 5, 2026 · 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Highways Performance Space + Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Presented by Moving Image Arts · Free with RSVP
This event has passed — kept here for the record.
- Date
- Saturday, September 5, 2026
- Hours
- 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM
- Location
- Highways Performance Space + Gallery
- 1651 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90404
- Admission
- Free with RSVP
- Seating is first come, first served. Free parking on site; food and drinks available.
In 1990, MTV aired Buzz, a 13-part experimental series created by Mark Pellington with producer/director Jon Klein and commissioned by MTV and Channel 4 in the UK. It put William S. Burroughs, Jenny Holzer, William Gibson, Jaron Lanier, Timothy Leary, and RuPaul on music television, cut together with a rapid, collaged visual logic that now looks less like a relic and more like a prophecy. It aired once and was never rerun.
THIS IS BUZZ, Pellington’s feature documentary on the making of that series, premiered at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival and will be released by Antenna Releasing. Moving Image Arts screens the film in Santa Monica ahead of that release, preceded by excerpts from the original series and followed by a live panel on how Buzz’s visual language of pastiche, irony, and cut-up became the operating system for how everyone consumes media today.
The Program
Four hours in one room — original series excerpts, the feature, and the conversation after.
- 6:00 PM
Doors
Free parking on site, with food and drinks available. Seating is first come, first served.
- 6:40 PM
BUZZ — Original Series Excerpts
Selections from the 1990 MTV / Channel 4 series, which aired once and was never rerun.
- 7:00 PM
THIS IS BUZZ
The feature documentary, screening ahead of its release from Antenna Releasing.
- 8:50 PM
Live Panel
How Buzz’s visual language of pastiche, irony, and cut-up became the operating system for how everyone consumes media today.
- 10:00 PM
Close
The Panel
Moderated by Joanne McNeil, author of Lurking: How a Person Became a User.
Mark Pellington
Director & Co-Creator of Buzz
A filmmaker based in Los Angeles. He started in MTV’s On-Air Promotions department, where his work in collage and sound/image/text juxtaposition led to Buzz, the 13-part global series he created with MTV Europe producer/director Jon Klein. He built the multi-screen environment for U2’s Zoo TV tour and made The Memory Palace with William Gibson, Brian Eno, and Peter Gabriel for World Expo ’92. His video for Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” won Best Director and Video of the Year at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards, and his features include Arlington Road, The Mothman Prophecies, and the dance film The Severing.
Joanne McNeil
Moderator
A writer based in Los Angeles and the author of the novel Wrong Way and Lurking: How a Person Became a User. She was the inaugural recipient of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation’s Arts Writing Award in Digital Art, a resident at Eyebeam, and a Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant recipient. She writes the column “Speculations” for Filmmaker magazine.
Robert Tercek
Panelist
A media executive, author, and speaker, and the author of Vaporized: Solid Strategies for Success in a Dematerialized World, named 2016 International Book of the Year by getAbstract at the Frankfurt Book Fair. He has served as President of Digital Media at OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, SVP of Digital Media at Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Creative Director at MTV.
Kate Parsons
Panelist
A video artist and educator who teaches digital art at Pepperdine University’s Seaver College. She is co-founder of FLOAT, a VR and AR art studio, and founder of FEMMEBIT, a Los Angeles platform and triennial festival of femme and non-binary artists working in video and new media. Her work has shown at SFMOMA, Art Toronto, the Toronto International Film Festival, and SXSW.
Holly Willis
Panelist
Professor of Cinematic Arts and Chair of the Media Arts + Practice Division at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where she co-directs AI for Media & Storytelling. She is the author of Fast Forward: The Future(s) of the Cinematic Arts and New Digital Cinema: Reinventing the Moving Image, and was founding West Coast editor of Filmmaker magazine and co-curator of RESFEST.
Getting There
Highways Performance Space + Gallery
On the 18th Street Arts Center campus
1651 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90404
Open in Google MapsPresented By
Moving Image Arts
Presenter
A Los Angeles nonprofit event series connecting the history of film and video art to the work people are making right now. Founded by Tony Romain.
movingimagearts.orgHighways Performance Space + Gallery
Venue
Now in its 37th year, Southern California’s boldest center for new performance, film, and visual art.
highwaysperformance.org18th Street Arts Center
Campus
One of the top artist residency programs in the US, and the largest in Southern California.
18thstreet.orgAntenna Releasing
Distributor
A boutique distributor of curated theatrical engagements and filmmaker-forward physical media. THIS IS BUZZ is on its 2026 slate.
antennareleasing.com